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In May 2003, the founders of Legion of Myth were a group of gamers involved in the PvP-based MMORPG, Shadowbane. In Shadowbane the LoM founders were members of the guild Order of the Blade (aka: Blade Empire). The Order of the Blade (OotB) was a pseudo-role-play guild that wished to tackle the violent conflict presented in the lore of the Shadowbane MMORPG.

Initially, Order of the Blade members all shared a similar ideal: PvP combat, based on a world in conflict, is fun, but it’s pointless without lore and canon to back it up. Essentially this meant that we fought for a published reason, not simply for 'ganking.'  The overall mentality was: if a kill count is all you're looking for, you can simply play a first person shooter to achieve that goal. Instead, we wanted engaging player-versus-player combat while simultaneously role-playing characters on a dangerous world. The OotB leadership quickly found other like-minded players and started to grow to a substantial size. 

Unfortunately, as most of you may know, most MMO players are either PvP oriented *or* a role-player. Rarely will you find someone who is both.  In order to compete and become successful in a hardcore PvP game such as Shadowbane, The Order of the Blade had to loosen (and finally remove) all restrictions on role-playing. This was further promoted by the original game developers' promises to enforce and encourage role-playing falling to the wayside.  There was no way to excel without breaking the foundation of the game lore - the guild soon followed suit.  Although we fully understood that this was out of necessity, this decision disenfranchised some of the OotB membership - causing a rift between those who simply wanted to win and those who wanted to keep to the guild's role-play roots.

From this rift came the birth of Legion of Myth.

[MaxLiao's (2008) Note:  I still respect Stas Blade, leader of Order of the Blade, and what he tried to accomplish. The situation grew out of his control and he was faced with a choice. Considering how powerful OotB became, I cannot say it was the wrong one for the guild. However, I do believe it was the wrong one for *my* playstyle at the time - which is why I chose to eventually leave and co-create LoM.]

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The conceptual idea that was to become Legion of Myth started with Vhalyar and Silvanoshi.  Although they are no longer with Legion of Myth, if not for their initial step forward in reaching out to Rooks, MaxLiao (and others) with their idea, Legion of Myth would not exist today.

The four initial founding members (Vhalyar, Silvanoshi, Rooks, and MaxLiao) worked together for a couple of weeks to lay the foundation of what was to become Legion of Myth.  At the time, World of Warcraft (WoW) was just announced and they agreed that WoW would be the primary focus of the newly formed guild.  It was also at this time where it was decided that Legion of Myth should be a multi-guild organization - starting with World of Warcraft, and branching out into other games as the opportunity presented itself.

[Historical Note:  On the 2nd of July 2003, Vhalyar purchased the domain name: http://legionofmyth.com.  MaxLiao subsequently took over the domain name a few months later, when Vhalyar left gaming and MMOs in favor of real life pursuits.]

Nafzib (aka: Oshi) and AmonShadowstorm (aka: Kodoss) quickly became a second tier of founders (and co-creators), joining the ranks of the leadership to assist in forming Legion of Myth.  With this start, Legion of Myth quickly grew from various sources, including: disenfranchised players within the Order of the Blade guild, friends from the original EverQuest game, and acquaintances from other past MMORPGs and gaming clans.

With the core leadership in place, and with the membership growing, LoM needed something to do to bind its members together.

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Although World of Warcraft was to be the main focus for Legion of Myth, Legion of Myth's first entry into an MMORPG was on 26 June 2003 with Star Wars: Galaxies. Legion of Myth <Myth> formed on the Starsider server - the unofficial role-play server - and was a moderate success. 

Considering the last minute rush to form a guild and the overall small number of members, LoM did very well in the achievement aspect.  <Myth> was well known through the PvP conquests of Kodoss, Inkel, and Zam (keeping the traitorous rebels on their heels), and the role-playing exploits of MaxLiao, Rooks, Shayla, and (our pet Wookie) Chalrhynn.

[MaxLiao's Note:  Why would I, an Imperial, pay a Rebel; a known enemy of the State and a traitor to the lawful government?  He should be happy I didn't shoot him in the face ... twice.  His service to the Empire is duly noted.]

As anyone who's played an MMO knows, people come and go from guilds all the time.  The key is to ensure that recruitment more than keeps pace with those who leave.  Unfortunately, with little attempt at recruitment, LoM's growth was stagnant.   It also didn't help that the ultra-hardcore stance on lore-based role-playing did not lend the guild well to the PvP-oriented players, while the PvP excursions did not seem to welcome those who simply want to dance and chat all day.  As people left the guild (or more commonly, left the game as a whole) the guild started dying a slow death.

[MaxLiao's Note:  As guild leader I take responsibility for the recruitment failures of LoM-SWG as well as LoM-EQ2 (see below).  My mentality at this time (and through 2005) was a VERY STRICT adherence to the lore and canon of a game - no flexibility or deviation to this rule.  Most gamers are like water, they take the easiest path.  The path I chose was to drill into the mountain, not go around it.]

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After Star Wars Galaxies, Legion of Myth decided to bridge the time gap before the release of World of Warcraft by playing City of Heroes.  In that game, Alakhai led the Legion of Myth guild, <Twilight Legion>.  Considering the extremely casual nature of the guild it did well, but we always knew that the game was only a bridge to WoW.  When WoW and EQ2 were released <Twilight Legion> wandered off into the night.

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It was during the City of Heroes era when many Legion of Myth members started looking to EverQuest 2 (EQ2), as opposed to World of Warcraft.  Considering our late start in recruiting, LoM-EQ2 did very well in bolstering our EQ2 membership - even surpassing our Thunderskull Clan (WoW) membership for most of its life.

EQ2 and WoW were released at the same time and Legion of Myth was there for both of them. In hindsight, (up until 2008) EverQuest II was probably LoM's best game/guild - though the Thunderskull Clan (WoW) players may disagree.

[MaxLiao's Note:  That's a good thing that they disagree!  I would hope that the people who played EQ2 think they were the best and the people who played WoW think that they are the best.  Healthy and friendly competition between organizational guilds is a good thing.]

Hindsight being 20/20 Legion of Myth probably should have stayed singularly with World of Warcraft, if for no other reason than to not split up the membership. However, after beta testing WoW and finding it boring (and limiting when compared to EQ2), some folks weren't sure if they were going to play WoW. EQ2 provided a good alternative.  It also seemed to allow for much greater role-playing potential.  Sadly, as you'll read below, this potentiality was not realized.

Legion of Myth did very well in EQ2. The made many friends, they hunted in well formed groups, and even did some of the lower level raids with its limited membership. But, as the situation would have it, this did not last. Similar to the issue with Shadowbane, it was quickly discovered that the EQ2 lore was a sham. People on both sides (good and evil) could group together like the best of buddies. Out of necessity, in order to succeed, the hard stance that MaxLiao took on the lore-based role-playing had to be lifted. Most of our membership quit EQ2 to go to WoW, or left MMOs altogether.

A few members stayed in EQ2, but we knew by this point there was no going back. The only thing that kept those members together was the LoM community. If the guild was to succeed it had to become an All Race/All Class (ARAC) guild.  MaxLiao would not - could not - allow this. (Isn't this why we formed LoM in the first place?) Rightly or wrongly, MaxLiao believed that he'd rather see Legion of Myth's name fade from the game than destroy the heart and soul of what LoM is.  In the end, LoM-EQ2 shut its doors, and the membership found new guild, games, or pursuits to occupy its time.

As a credit to their capability as players, some of LoM's members were picked up by the #1 and #2 (later to become #1) raiding guilds on the server, Halcyon Affinity and Eidolon.

[MaxLiao's (2008) Notes:  Although I'd been in hardcore, high-end guilds in the past, the attitude of Eidolon was different. They didn't carry the elitist attitude of a bunch of jerks. Much of what I learned there has shaped how I envision our upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic guild, Zeroł (see below).]

Thunderskull Clan, Legion of Myth's World of Warcraft guild under the leadership of Alakhai, was still going strong at this point. The only hiccup occurred when they switched servers and had to start the game over.  (Server transfers weren't in the game at this point.)  This move highlighted that, even in the LoM-WoW ranks, the slow death was coming.

Recruiting quality players was often difficult. It seemed that most people had joined their current guilds long before the game even came out, or were involved in previous games with their current guild -  much like many members of LoM. In keeping with this continual Legion of Myth theme, Thunderskull Clan formed a tight-knit community but failed to grow it. Recruitment wasn't happening and peoples' real lives started to interfere with grouping, raiding, and ultimately, success.

[MaxLiao's Note: I remind you that LoM is not a just group of role-players that like 'toons made of color pixels. We are achievement-oriented and PvP-rooted players who seek to find 'purpose' for the PvP outside of, 'my pixels make your pixels vanish.' We know what it means to be in a high end guild, what it means to excel, and what it means to *properly* role-play. (Yes, I did just say, *properly*) This tends to be too much for many people. Part of the initial joke when creating Legion of Myth in 2003 is, 'it's a myth that one can be a role-player who wishes to achieve on a limited play schedule.']

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Finally, with the end of Thunderskull Clan, Legion of Myth all but closed its doors to the MMORPG world.  Yes, in 2006, the organization did try a last gasp effort with an ineffective run at the dismal game Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

During this time, MaxLiao was working in Okinawa, Japan; Silvan, Vhalyar, and Kodoss (Amon Shadowstorm) had long ago left MMOs; while Rooks, Nafzib, and Alakhai had to focus on real life. The entire leadership core was shattered and the membership has dispersed to the proverbial four winds.

[MaxLiao's Notes: Looking back, we now know that Legion of Myth always carried and continued on - even during these dark times. Via Ventrilo or the message board forums, people still clung to the friendships that were made within the Legion of Myth community. Stragglers would return and talk about LoM stories, ask about current events, and look to a potential LoM future. Whether it is about playing tabletop games via the internet, discussing the next MMO, or looking for friends to play computer/console games online, LoM has always continued to exist in some fashion.]

Further events, first involving Turkish hackers destroying the Legion of Myth website followed by porn and ad spammers making the rebuilt site unusable, gave the founders MaxLiao, Nafzib, and Rooks time to rethink Legion of Myth.  They agreed that their ultimate goal, as initially expressed by Nafzib, was to maintain the organization's MMORPG roots, while branching out into and exploring all the things they love about gaming. Therefore, no matter what game or games we all play, we have a single place to call home.

Instead of a multi-MMO guild, they'd agreed upon re-imaging as a multi-gaming organization.  Be it tabletop gaming, computer and console gaming, or simply forum role-playing, games of all types can find friends within Legion of Myth.

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What you see now is the 'same-yet-different' Legion of Myth that was originally founded in June 2003. Only now, it has been re-imagined by MaxLiao, Nafzib, and Rooks to pave the way into the future. This version of LoM will not solely focus on being an MMORPG organization anymore. After some reflection and discussion, the founders have decided broaden LoM's horizons to better focus on YOU, the community of gamers as a whole! Legion of Myth now caters to gamers of all types - tabletop gamers, computer gamers, console gamers, and so forth. Here in 2008, the founders know they have their work cut out for them, but this community has rebuilt itself in the past. Instead of focusing on immediate and short term goals, they are looking to solidifying our community for the future.

As official Legion of Myth guilds and clans, we still focus on maturity and role-playing, but the organization is (much) more flexible and accommodating than the LoM ver.1 guilds ever were.

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Part of Legion of Myth's rebuilding effort focused on its roots as a PvP oriented MMORPG guild. With this in mind, Legion of Myth, under the lead of Rooks, formed a guild in Warhammer Online.  The guild started on the Ostermark server, but when that server shut down the guild moved to Phoenix Throne.  There Legion of Myth found a couple of amazing alliances to join. For nearly a year Legion of Myth faced down guilds and warbands with greater numbers with a high amount of success; we ravaged the ranks of Destruction with our friends and allies before finally calling it quits.

[MaxLiao's Notes: The reasons we left Warhammer Online are two-fold.  First, the game lost it's appeal with the Renown 40+ grind, and then the Land of the Dead left a lot to be desired.  Meaningful PvP died and as multitudes of players left the game too many area were ghost towns.  Secondly, and I really hope this is the last time I ever have to type this: we could did not recruit.  We decided at the eleventh hour to play the game and form a guild.  With no time to recruit, and our typical lackadaisical recruitment methods, we, as before, failed to grow.]

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In the hopes of starting a new (to Legion of Myth) trend of getting involved in a game and initiating the recruitment processes early, Legion of Myth formed Zero Zero Zero (Zeroł), under the leadership of MaxLiao, for the upcoming game: Star Wars: The Old Republic (SW:TOR).  The game was announced in October 2008, and immediately Legion of Myth stepped up to this new challenge.  Right from the start the guild began building a community of like-minded members who see Zeroł not only as a SWTOR guild, but as part of the larger Legion of Myth community.

[MaxLiao's (2009) Notes: Truth be told, this is the first time since Thunderskull Clan a Legion of Myth guild has made an effort to recruit for a game prior to its release.  If we use other LoM guilds as our reference point, and equal the individual success of our members from those games to apply it to Zeroł, Zeroł is headed for some amazing things!  So far, Zeroł has had a wonderful start - recruiting some absolutely amazing members long prior to the game's release.]

The pressure is on Zeroł and MaxLiao to continue the individual trends of LoM player success in an MMORPG, while reversing the admittedly poor recruitment trends of past LoM guilds.  His mission is to form a long-lasting, successful guild within SW:TOR.  To this end, MaxLiao has thrown off the hyper-rigidity of the past while still remaining true to Legion of Myth's roots and core values.

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Sep 2008:

• Legion of Myth enters Warhammer Online

Dec 2008:

• MaxLiao, Garthon, and JJKocholek were the winners of the Christmas Magazine Cover contest.

Jan 2009:

• MaxLiao conducted the first (of three) "LoM2Q" member interviews with JJKocholek, writer and illustrator of the McGuffin Exchange comics.  You can read the interview here.

Feb 2009:

• MaxLiao conducted the second (of three) "LoM2Q" member interviews with DarKOnE™, project lead for BattleMech Hanger.  You can read the interview here.

Mar 2009:

• Garthon, Adgertesse, and JJKocholek were the winners of the Short Story contest.
  
• MaxLiao conducted the third (of three) "LoM2Q" member interviews with Caine, co-developer of the SWTOR Temple fan site.  You can read the interview here.

June 2009:

• JJKocholek, Garthon, and MaxLiao were the winners of the Web Comic contest.
  
• Zero Zero Zero was awarded "Guild of the Month" by SWTOR-Station.  You can read the full interview here.

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Three years after Thunderskull Clan shut its doors, an already-formed guild from the Shadowsong server joins the Legion of Myth family. FifthAngel was formed after various members of the guild <Dark Carnival> joined with other friends roaming throughout the World of Warcraft universe. In August 2009 these folks joined the Legion of Myth organization with their members and a large desire to reach success in World of Warcraft - while maintaining a casual friendly atmosphere.

[PDPoc's (2009) Notes:  FifthAngel is the ideal place for a player who wishes to take part in World of Warcraft's end game content.  We expect everyone to come prepared and with their game faces on; however, we strive for success without embodying the elitist attitude that usually comes with many high end-game raiding guilds.]

Looking forward, FifthAngel's goals are:

• Kill Arthas before the release of Cataclysm
  
• Recruit enough capable players to perform a full guild 25-man
  
• Make preparations for all of the changes coming in the next expansion - including the guild leveling system.

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Aug 2009:

• Garthon, Rooks, and Etheyon were the winners of the Audiophile contest.

Oct 2009:

• Xavier becomes the first Legion of Myth 2.0  member to be promoted to the rank of Senior Officer.
  
• Zero Zero Zero was interviewed by Forums of the Old Republic (FOTOR).  You can read the full interview here.

Dec 2009:

• MaxLiao, Sudsy, and Xavier were the winners of the Ye Olde Fashioned Recruitment Poster contest.

Feb 2010:

• After a year and a half of faithful service, Legion of Myth closed it’s old phpBB forums and re-opened under Simple Machine Forums (SMF | version 1.1.11).  The main reason for this was because the phpBB message board forums and the WordPress web page required multiple logins; it wasn’t one-stop-shop.  Most of the people would register on the forums, but avoided the main web page – where the majority of our information was held.  This new site allows for one login to access the entire site, as well as various ‘easy to install’ mods that enable us to present more information to our users; it makes the overall site more user friendly.

June 2010:

• NAFZIB RETIRES:  U.S. Navy officer commissioning, nuclear engineering schools, and frequent transfers all prevented Nafzib from being as active as he desired to be within the Legion of Myth community and leadership.  Although his voice and votes were heard when needed, he was not able to present himself consistently enough to build the rapport with the membership as he'd once done.
  
  Make no mistake, the Legion of Myth that you see now has Nafzibs' fingerprints all over it; and his passion for Legion of Myth never quelled.  Many of the themes and ideas that are presented on this site can be credited directly to Nafzib.  The most notable of Nafzib's influences would be the idea that Legion of Myth should not just be an MMORPG guild (or organization), but rather a gaming community that spans the gamut of gaming and role-playing.</p>
  
  Unfortunately, his ever increasing distance prevented him from being as involved as he wanted and needed to be.  Therefore, on 14 June 2010, two years after he helped rebuild Legion of myth and seven years after he helped to created the original Legion of Myth, Nafzib officially retired as a Legion of Myth Scion.
  
  [MaxLiao's Note:  Nafzib and I did not always agree, and we've had some rather heated arguments about the direction of Legion of Myth and/or its guilds, but if it weren't for him Legion of Myth would not have the community that it has now.  I often joked that Nafzib was the one to keep me in check; and though I wanted to bang my head against a wall on many occasions, I knew (and still know) that he was (is) always looking out for the best of Legion of Myth and its community.  People may never know this short of my words, but, no matter the form Legion of Myth has years from now, you all ... WE all ... owe Nafzib a debt of gratitude and thanks that may never be able to be properly expressed.]

FifthAngel continues to achieve and improve in-game - moving inexorably to the slaying of Arthas.  Each weak they grow stronger as a team, more capable as raiders, and overall more successful within the World of Warcraft game and community.

Zeroł continues to grow and prepare for Star Wars: The Old Republic.  While many of its members are standing by, awaiting the release of the game, many others have decided to team up in other games, including: World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons Online, and Age of Conan among others.  Whether in another game or on the forums, Zeroł grows tighter and more prepared every day.  Combine that with Senior Officer Xavier's consistently amazing updates, Zeroł will be 'fully armed and operational' when the game launches.

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Jul 2010:
Aug 2010:
Sep 2010:

• MaxLiao moves to Germany

Oct 2010:
Nov 2010:
Dec 2010:
Jan 2011:
Feb 2011:
Mar 2011:

• Zeroł is created on the SWTOR Guild HQ site.  Phase 1 of 3 completed.
  
• Beucko's SWTOR character story contest is won by:

Apr 2011:

• Legion of Myth creates a Blood Bowl League - Legion of Myth BBL
  
• Zeroł Ventrlio Guild Meeting.

May 2011:

• Rooks's Pazaak tournament is won by:  .

Jun 2011:

• Zeroł Ventrlio Guild Meeting.
  
• Rooks's Pazaak tournament is won by: 

The Legion of Myth, World of Warcraft, guild known as FifthAngel officially closes its doors.

[PDPoc's Note:  Fifth Angel was created in 2009 shortly after the release of World of Warcrafts’ second expansion Wrath of the Lich Kings first content patch releasing the Ulduar Raid. It was formed by PDPoc, Elkheart, and Zavira in order to offer a place of for players with a casual game play style to experience end game content without the headaches and attitude of a more hardcore environment.

A majority of the founding members of Fifth Angel were previous members of the guild Dark Carnival to include Decompose, Zavira, Elkheart, Unwillinfox, Ashecloud, Projectdarq, punkmonkey, and wowaholic. We also welcomed new friends for Legion of myth to complete our guild charter and get things going.

Fifth Angel completed its goal of bringing an end to the Lich King prior to the release of Cataclysm marking the first time many of our casual raiders had completed an expansions content. It was a great time for Fifth Angel but that would be short lived.

Azeroth was not the only thing destroyed by the Deathwings Cataclysm. With the December release of World of Warcrafts third expansion Cataclysm, Fifth Angel was plagued with many members having real life obligations such as Christmas vacation causing some members to progress too quickly and others not quick enough. Some of the more quickly progressed players sought adventure with other guilds more on their level. In July of 2011, Fifth Angel was absorbed into a friendly like-minded guild Hoardamus Prime. The remaining members of Fifth Angel have accepted this merger with an open mind and a motivated heart and have become happier with all of the new activity that we are now included in.]

The Legion of Myth, Star Wars: The Old Republic, guild known as Zeroł is still growing and fully anticipating the successful launch of SWTOR - for both the guild and the game.

The guild has made new allies, grown its membership, and is chomping at the bit to get out there and tackle the game BioWare is providing - as well as some Sith!

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